Thursday, 4 June 2015

GM4OBK/P Scottish Borders Day - 4th June 2015

An early start was needed for a solo border raid up Teviotdale in the Scottish Borders. I had planned to activate three summits in a day, with a round trip drive of 305 miles taking me north of Langholm on the A7 historic route to Edinburgh...

Room to park next to a gate access on the side of the A7 - my car on left is pointing in the Langholm direction

There was no parking up the access track to Eweslees Farm at NY 388973 and there was a warning sign on the bridge stating that parked vehicles there had caused accidents. So I turned my car round and parked 100m from the bridge, just off the road on the verge.

Return home at 21:40 pm after fast food stop at Penrith KFCMotored mileage: 305 miles Distance walked: 9.5 miles Total Ascent: 3315 feet

Screenshot of the two separate walks - GPX files were uploaded into the SOTA Mapping Project

Summit 1: GM/SS-118 Wisp Hill

Access to the open fell was via gates at NY 38910 97437 and NY 38990 97608. From there I decided to walk over the flank of Whin Fell - mistake. This was what Yorkshiremen call "Haggis Walking" I'm not sure why. I found it very hard on the ankles. For sure I would have been better going up the ridge on to Whin Fell as the drop to the saddle after it was minimal. That saddle was eventually reached by walking up the right hand side of the burn.

Walking up from the saddle north of Whin Fell to the summit of Wisp Hill SS-198 (595m ASL)

The was a fence corner running off the top of the summit of Wisp Fell which provided a convenient point to fix my 5m fishing pole.

Equipment used for the activations of SS-118 and SS-136:

Yaesu FT-817ND 6 watts output from 14.4V 3.3 Ah Laptop LiPo battery

Palm Morse key with Ultra Pico Memory Keyer

Link dipoles for 30/20/17m and 15/10/6m bands on 5m pole

I had a very comfortable 32 minute activation on Wisp Hill GM/SS-118

Commercial Radio Mast on Comb Hill one mile away and 80m below me on Wisp Hill

I started operating on 30m and worked 4 stations before the band went quiet. 20m was more vibrant though, especially so on SSB. Best DX was with Joao CU3AA in the Azores and SV9RGI in Crete. After that I took down the longer dipole and substituted my shorter one to try to get some points on the 10m band for the 2015 SOTA Challenge. Just one contact with John G0TDM in Penrith was completed as there was no skip into Europe at the time. For the first time today I was trying out a memory keyer on a summit. This is the Ultra Pico unit, which my friend from Northern Ireland Victor GI4ONL, had purchased on my behalf when he bought one for himself. I found it very useful - enabling me to send out CQ calls and "TU" confirmations in Morse at the push of a button.

Summit 2: GM/SS-146 Pikethaw Hill

It was sun shining now and the traverse across to Pikethaw Hill was simply a case of following the fence down across Ewenshope Hill to the valley bottom at Ewes Doors and then climbing up the other side to reach the cairn on the summit (43 minutes).

Pikethaw Hill SS-146 with the already climbed Wisp Hill to the right of the picture

There is a metal stanchion fence post hidden behind the cairn to which my antenna pole was fixed.

I was buzzed by this helicopter on the summit

As before, I started up on 30m CW (10 MHz) followed again by 20m and finally 10m for the SOTA Challenge. CU3AA Joao (Azores) was logged again but the best DX was Matt, KA1R in the state of Maine, USA. Several summit to summit contacts were also recorded...

The 10m band turned up one contact on skip. This was Rudi HB9MKV in Switzerland although regular SOTA man John G0TDM in Penrith was again worked on groundwave. As I made my way down to valley I was thoroughly enjoying my day. There was no problem strolling through the farmyard at Eweslees Farm, close to where I had parked up by the A7 which is the "Historic route to Edinburgh" according to the road signs along it. After a late lunch and a short break back at the car I turned her round and drove two miles to the Mosspaul Hotel which was my start point for Ellson Fell GM/SS-146.

Summit 3: GM/SS-146 Ellson Fell

Equipment used for the activation of SS-146:

Yaesu FT-857D with 60 watts output from 5 Ah LiFePo4 battery

Palm Morse key with Ultra Pico Memory Keyer

Link dipoles for 30/20/17m and 15/10/6m bands on 5m pole

The Mosspaul Hotel looked to me like it had ceased being a hotel, however there was a campsite to the rear, with flags of various nationalities being flown to attract the camper tourists passing by. I parked on the curtilage of the site next to the A7. Permission was not sought to park there as there was no one around to ask and I wasn't blocking the entrance.

Mosspaul Hotel - I am parked up by the large tree for SS-146

I chose a poor route up - and there was more tussocky "haggis walking" over the flank of Bye Hill, making the callous on the inside of my left foot even tougher than it was at the start of the day!Thinking that intentionally going north and then turning back on myself would make the gradient easier, it didn't. This was the second bad decision of the day after deciding not to cross Whin Fell on my morning walk... I would recommend that anyone following in my footsteps to go up the same way that I came down - which is along Penangus Hope - the curiously named glen which carries the Mosspaul Burn at the side of the mature conifer forest :

Looking down the Glen of Penangus Hope to the Mosspaul Inn from the flank of Carlin Tooth

It took considerably longer (83 minutes) than it should have done to reach the featureless summit, due to the extended route taken, fatigue and the fact that I was carrying an FT-857 and larger battery. The grass topped featureless summit offered no support for my antenna, so I employed a 3 point guying ring and tent pegs:

The featureless top of Ellson Fell which appeared to be rarely visited - but this was its 13th activation for SOTA!

The same operating style was again employed on my third summit of the day. The bands chosen meant close in stations in the UK were not worked, apart from on the 10m band on groundwave. I had purposely left out 40m operation due to the time factor - on what was a 14 hours day anyway. Add 40m operation to what I was already doing and it would have turned my day into a 16 hour effort, so 40m, the most popular SOTA band was omitted from the mission.

It was taking me between 10 and 15 minutes to switch over to the 10m band after my session on 20m due to having to remove one dipole and replace it with another, so I must make up another dipole to work on 10m-20m-30m for future activations. The first part of the 6/10m Challenge ends on August 14th, but then restarts on November 15th 2015.

Following the burn down the valley was a much better route than the one I chose to go up on. It was less tussocky and shorter. After leaving the Mosspaul Inn I reached Penrith via the A7 and M6 (Carlisle) route in less than one hour for some fast food. It was then I realised that the assistant in KFC was the first person I had spoken to all day, apart from the 70 brief exchanges I had with radio amateurs over the radio, not having seen or passed or spoken to a single soul throughout the day...this would not have happened in the Lake District!

I'm now lying 3rd in the UK SOTA Complete table. Including the 3 summits bagged today I've completed 119 summits in the last year, two were confirmed as complete as a result of chaser contacts and 117 were confirmed by activating a unique summit from my side from a summit which I had previously chased.I'm hoping to do a few more trips to the Scottish Borders during the summer. There are still a handful of border summits reachable within a day from my QTH in North Yorkshire which I haven't yet visited. I find it easier to reach Scotland than Wales as the roads north are generally less congested than if I travel across the Pennines and Manchester.

About Me

Keen outdoor enthusiast enjoying walking, cycling, travelling, music and theatre and operating my amateur radio station indoors since 1982 and on hills and mountains since 2005 using Telegraphy (Morse Code), data and voice communications. I started out as a short wave listener in 1969.

The links below go to summits I have visited and activated for Summits On The Air (SOTA) since 2009. I try to report on every summit I visit, however on some SOTA Tours in mainland Europe the similarities I find on many wooded summits make them difficult to write anything about which is of real interest.

I am a retired Communications Specialist living in North Yorkshire since 1993 and served as a Magistrate in the county from 2005 to 2018.